I would like to know how you would best approach this situation.
I’m a freelancer, working physically in Taiwan but not for any Taiwanese customers. Soon, I’ll get an open work permit through marriage. I’ll also file my taxes.
I don’t know how to do exactly to prevent a fine/entry ban from occurring. What concerns me is because I’ve worked remotely, when I’ll file my taxes, I’ll be in big trouble. Or does getting married helps with this? I’ll also seek legal council but I’d be interested in anyone who did the same thing.
Can you also suggest a good lawyer familiar on the topic? Thank you.
Congragulations on getting married!
Your ARC status will be ‘dependent.’ So, you in theory you don’t need to earn anything to maintain your ARC. The tax office will only know how much you earn by you telling them. Tell them you do a bit of private teaching and earned X amount and pay some taxes on that. Don’t involve an overseas employer! Should you wish you switch to an APRC based on employment, you will need to get a local job and earn above a certain amount to qualify. So far as I know, they only look at your last year’s worth of earnings, after five years. OR you get an APRC as a dependent–spouses income will be scrutinised.
I’ve stayed on dependent status and not bothered with an APRC because it’s by far the least hassle and I’m not planning on staying here indefinitely. The APRC involves quite a bit of hoop jumping. It has various pros and cons. No need to go into that here but you need to think in advance.
Hope that helps.
I don’t think the MOFA and Tax Office talk to each other. So filing taxes after getting your ARC, could be fine… but maybe someone who has done something similar can chime in.
Remote work legality really depends on the specific situation when you stay in Taiwan without a work permit.
I feel I’m definitely in a gray area. It’s not as bad as working as a tutor or any other actual job located in Taiwan (I work from my laptop)…
… but it’s against the rules nonetheless.
I really need to get legal council here. Why are lawyers so damn expensive in Taiwan?
It’s very useful. I don’t really want to get a traditional job in Taiwan so that might be a problem in the future. I enjoy my digital nomad career even if the laws are not made for it (nor Taiwan is the best digital nomad location.)
I was simply advising against taking the options others suggested. You’re doing good. I believe @Marco knows a good CPA. Probably the easiest way would be to open a local company and ask your employer to hire that company instead.
While I moved a couple of years ago, before I left Taiwan, I was doing the exact same thing–so it’s not a problem once you’re married. I did this for over five years.
I was married to a Taiwanese person and my visa was based on the marriage. I worked as a freelancer and rarely worked with Taiwanese clients. The vast majority of my clients were from Australia, North America, and Europe.
When it was tax time, my wife would just go to the tax office, tell them what I did for a living and how much I made. They helped her fill out the forms and told her how much tax we had to pay.
During this time, I also made repeated trips outside of Taiwan and never had a problem.
I’m not sure about the work you did before you had a work permit through marriage. How were you staying in Taiwan before the marriage? Were you just on a visitor visa?
As someone said above, the tax office and Foreign Ministry do not cross-communicate. Entering and leaving the country has nothing to do with whether you have paid taxes or not (except if you get deported.) Tax will only come into play when you renew whatever visa status you are on. @Gilgamesh I was on work visa status before, and before that tourist visa. I have never had any problems with the tax office over many years. They are always delighted to take any money, and quite diligent about tax rebates.
Do you happen to know if there is a way to pay in installments? Between the marriage and the tax bill and traveling to Europe for a month to make it happen, money isn’t that abundant.
Question: When you declared your taxes - you declared your income as “other income” or “salary income”? Because salaried income comes with deductions. Other income, does not. And I believe that to make it salary income, you need a lot of legalized paperwork.
To answer your question, yes, I’m on a visitor visa now.
If you have a credit card in Taiwan, there is usually an option to put it on installment plans. It could be zero interest done at the time of purchase, or manually once the charge comes through (for fubon the single charge must be over 1000nt) but is not interested free, however exact interest charge will be known.
Then when you go pay the bill, your required payment will include your installment amount plus whatever other charge you put on it.
It will tie up your credit limit but this will not hurt your credit or incur any punitive interest.
That’s the only way I know of, at least for travel costs assuming your card has enough limit.
Tax bills and others, you need to talk to the relevant office.
It’s high because I haven’t planned for it because I’m an idiot
To my defense, I wasn’t aware that if I work from my laptop alone, I’m liable for taxation in Taiwan. I know this won’t fly with the tax department, so I’ll declare in full, but it will be difficult.
Serves me right to listen to common wisdom, people saying “but no, you’re not really working in Taiwan, you don’t have any taxes to pay.”
How much do you think you’re liable in back taxes? Get an accountant. He can also figure out how to get it paid in installment, if possible. He can also help you figure out how to reduce any tax liability you might have.
If you’re worried it means you must be bringing in a lot. If you’re making less than 30k a month, tax office isn’t interested.
If it turns out you can’t do installments then put similar costs on credit card installment. Yes there probably will be some fees, but it’s better than paying at once.
Trip to Europe will likely be six figure in ntd already.
Anyways online calculator isn’t going to tell the whole story, there will be deductions, exemptions, exclusions, all kinds of loophole, etc. etc.
